“We’ve always been keen to add a bit of value to our product. This seemed to be a fairly simple way.”
Allambee Flower Farm is spreading Christmas cheer with an Aussie touch. Casey Neill spoke to Neil O’Sullivan about the business and its native festive wreaths.
Neil and Quynh O’Sullivan are producing hundreds of wreaths from native flowers in the lead-up to Christmas.
Year-round they produce more than 40 varieties of cut flowers, native plants and cymbidium orchids on their 25 acre farm in Allambee, at the head of the Tarwin West River in Gippsland’s Strzelecki Ranges.
“Like most areas of farming, to be simply a farm producer leaves you vulnerable to all sorts of market problems and low profit margins,” Neil said.
“We’ve always been keen to add a bit of value to our product.
“The wreaths seemed to be a fairly simple way.”
Their first creations received a good response, so they’ve embarked on supplying the flower and foliage rings in earnest this year.
“We’re now regularly supplying even supermarkets,” Neil said.
“We supply the Sydney wholesale market, the Brisbane flower markets … ”
The husband-and-wife team are creating “hundreds to thousands a week” on the farm.
“We get a lot of positive feedback and the demand has been great,” he said.
Neil bought the scenic block about 25 years ago because “I couldn’t afford to live in Melbourne and loved the area”.
He worked in under-developed countries and while in Vietnam in 2003 he met Quynh, who was working as his translator.
They fell in love, got married, moved to Neil’s farm and had twin boys in 2009.
“Originally I actually hoped to grow Boronia and extract Boronia for a perfume essence,” he said.
“Technically there were problems with that, so progressively we grew towards just growing cut flowers.”
He said the area’s reliable rainfall, fertile soil and good drainage made it ideal for growing.
The steep block did provide a challenge, though. Water ran off the slopes and the soil was eroding.
“We reversed that process through terracing,” he said.
“I’d been working in Vietnam for a number of years and was inspired by the terracing they used there to make use of very steeply sloping land.
“I thought ‘if it can be done in Vietnam, it can probably be done here’.”
The farm now has about five kilometres of terraces that have evolved over the past 10 years.
They also have a few hothouses for their orchids.
Natives were the obvious choice to plant.
“They’re suited very much to the area,” Neil said.
“We thought the demand in Australia was not being adequately met.
“Flowers tend to be fashion-driven in a way.
“For whatever reason, fashion seems to have moved towards a greater appreciation of natives.
“Local product is seen favourably at the moment as well.”
The O’Sullivans have operated the farm in earnest for the past decade, for the most part doing all the work themselves.
“It’s seasonal. We have a peak period during waratahs where we might have three or four other people working with us,” Neil said.
“We’re getting a lot of approaches from people who would like to have celebrations and weddings, even funerals.
“We want to set ourselves up to be able to respond to that demand.”
The O’Sullivans are regulars at the Warragul Farmers Market, held at Civic Place on the third Saturday of each month.
Quynh told the market that she loved the monthly event because she got to meet the people who admired her flowers as much as she did, and it was a way for her to connect with the community.
She said she loved to hear all the reasons that people bought the flowers.
